MOS Ski Meeting

The Winter Ski meeting of the MOS is a highlight of the season for many of us. A range of skiers have graced the meeting, from complete beginners to experts. The meeting is a heady mix of academia, skiing and fraternity. The group is friendly to newcomers and all are welcome, including non-skiers.

Professor Steve Vernon from Nottingham organised the first event in 2001 in Lillehammer, Norway. It was a runaway success and we have had an annual meeting ever since. It was held in Lillehammer for a further three years, then moved to France, with Monique and I taking over the organisation. We visited Val d’Isere for three years and then onto our current town of Zermatt.

The academic meetings are styled on updates. We have a conference room in the hotel and a chairman for each day. The updates include retina, anterior segment and glaucoma but also more esoteric subjects depending on the delegates’ expertise. All attendees are encouraged to present at the meeting, but some, including newcomers, may choose not to present. The meeting is accredited with 16 CPD points. We have the academic meetings in the afternoon, from 14.30 - 18.30, afterwards adjourning for dinner. Each year there is an Antler Cup winner, and also the Spagyrik Award for the greatest goof of the week.

Zermatt is a magnificent venue, with the backdrop of the Matterhorn. The mountain and its history dominate proceedings. The skiing is unrivalled. Zermatt is also very attractive to non-skiers and there are beautiful walks around the village. Travel to the resort is fairly straightforward - plane then train. We can book the conference hotel for you, or alternatively, you may arrange your own accommodation. There are usually around 20-25 attendees.

You may enjoy this poem, by Thomas Hardy. It refers to the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn, by Edward Whymper, an Englishman and his team in 1865. The Matterhorn was the last great Alpine peak to be climbed.

Zermatt to the Matterhorn

Thirty-two years since, up against the sun,

Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight,

Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height,

And four lives paid for what the seven had won.

They were the first by whom the deed was done,

And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight

To that day's tragic feat of manly might,

As though, till then, of history thou hadst none.

Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon

Thou watch'dst each night the planets lift and lower;

Thou gleam'dst to Joshua's pausing sun and moon,

And brav'dst the tokening sky when Caesar's power

Approached its bloody end: yea, saw'st that Noon

When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour.

For more information please contact either of us on the details below.

Best wishes,

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